Invisible Woman

Marvel Legendsby yo go re

Sue, you really need to eat more; you get any thinner and you're just going to fade away.

Sue Richards' psionic ability to manipulate ambient cosmic energy enables her to bend light without distortion - thus rendering herself, and other people and objects, invisible. Sue's brain cells produce psionic force she can shape into highly resistant protective fields and relatively simple forms - such as rectangular planes, globes, cylinders, cones and domes. By projecting columns of psionic force beneath her, she can travel through the air. Sue continues to develop her powers and play an active role in the team's leadership.

Marvel Comics has some of the best female characters in the industry. While DC seems to only make its girls minor versions of its major characters (Wonder Woman being the exception), today's Marvel Universe is full of strong, capable women. It wasn't always that way, however.

Though the former Sue Storm has had several action figures over the years, the first was, ironically, really hard to find. A clear body was covered with color-changing paint, which disappeared when it got cold: toss Sue in the freezer for a few minutes and she'd disappear. The figure was both shortpacked and ragingly popular, which made her a favorite target for scalpers - sort of a progenitor of YDD Syndrome, though since she was around before the internet, her prices never went as high.

This new Invisible Woman is just over 6" tall and is built on the female ML body that was introduced with Elektra and so moves at the same 32 points: toes, ankles, boots, knees, thighs, hips, waist, torso, neck, head, shoulders, biceps, elbows, forearms, wrists and hands.

To simulate her powers, Sue is molded entirely from clear plastic. She's got a new head sculpt with the long hair Sue has had a few times throughout her career. A very thin piece of plastic molded with the team's "4" insignia is glued to her chest, so we get costume details without resorting to paint - a pretty clever idea. Unfortunately, this new figure is just as rare as the original - she's not in every case, and her name doesn't even show up on some official product lists. What's a girl got to do to catch a break?

In early comics, the Invisible Girl (yes, "Girl"- it wasn't until the '80s that she graduated to a more respectable name) was mostly a liability: like Jean Grey, one use of her powers was enough to send her into a fainting spell. She could turn herself invisible, but that was all - she had the super ability to stay out of the way. Eventually, she learned to effect other people and objects, and to create invisible force fields as well. A true reflection of her culture, Sue's gone from the weakest member of the group to an icon of modern feminism, a true leader and a nurturing mother.

Like all the Marvel legends figures, the Invisible Woman comes with a display base. While most are highly detailed, hers is simple: a smooth, slightly curved wall that simulates one of her force fields. Measuring 4 1/2" wide, 6 1/2" tall and about 1/2" thick, the wall has a small tab to help keep it standing, and two foot pegs on the top so that Sue can float in mid-air.

The Invisible Woman comes with a reproduction of Fantastic Four #245, which is a very Sue-centric issue. It's a very humanizing effort, and generally viewed as the beginning of her maturation from ~Girl to ~Woman. Part of John Byrne's classic run, the reprint has been given a slightly altered cover from #504, partially because it's more dynamic, but probably because it also has Sue with longer hair.